Squad cars have 11th Avenue closed off about 8:45 a.m. as officers search for a suspect in an early-morning shooting. Behind the SUV is an East Metro SWAT team vehicle. (Pioneer Press: Raya Zimmerman)

Houa Vang removes a piece of broken glass from a window of her North St. Paul, Minn., apartment Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014. The apartment unit is adjacent to a unit where a woman was shot in the leg some time after 4:40 a.m. Houa Vang said she and her husband, Don Xiong, remained asleep until around 7:30 a.m. when the sound of breaking glass awoke them and police told them to evacuate.
(Pioneer Press: Dave Orrick)

A North St. Paul police officer stands in the doorway of the building where a North St. Paul, Minn., woman was shot Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014. Hours later, police shot out the window of the unit before gaining access, witnesses said.
(Pioneer Press: Dave Orrick)

Police were trying to locate two people for questioning late Sunday after a woman was shot in the leg at an apartment building in North St. Paul.

Police were called to the building at 2345 11th Ave. about 4:40 a.m., said Capt. Dustin Nikituk of the North St. Paul police. The woman, whose injuries were not life-threatening, was taken to a hospital. Authorities declined to release the victim’s name.

Initially, police were believed to be focused only on the victim’s mother. But Nikituk said late Sunday that police had not named any suspects and were trying to locate the mother and the victim’s boyfriend, who both were believed to be in the apartment at the time of the shooting. “It may not be the mother involved, there may be another suspect in this,” he said. No arrests had been made as of Sunday night.

Police evacuated the building about 9:30 a.m., Nikituk said. At 11 a.m., the East Metro SWAT Team sent robots into the building to find that no suspects were inside, he said.

Houa Vang, a resident of one of the two second-floor units, said she and her husband, Don Xiong, woke at 7:30 a.m. to the sound of glass shattering. They said that at first they thought an icicle had broken off and hit the ground, but then they saw squad cars when they looked out the window.

During the police search, residents waited in two Metro Transit buses parked nearby.

As Houa Vang later picked up shards of broken glass from her west-facing window, she said she was unsure why police broke the window. She said she thought she heard knocking before she woke up but didn’t recall hearing gunshots.

Nearby resident Andrew Lane said at about 11 a.m. he witnessed an officer fire roughly 20 rounds into the apartment building from the SWAT vehicle parked in the street.

Nikituk said it is standard for SWAT team members to break windows with nonlethal ammunition in order to gain access. Two windows were shattered on the west side of the building and one on the east.

Houa Vang said she didn’t know the names of the people in the unit of the crime scene, but she described the residents as a woman in her 20s, a teenage girl and a toddler.

Audio of police radio traffic on the website mnpoliceclips.com indicated that the shooting victim’s boyfriend called police and alleged his girlfriend’s mother was the shooter.

Police were heard reporting that the boyfriend said the woman was bleeding after being shot in the leg.

Police remove remote-controlled units from the scene of an early-morning shooting Sunday in North St. Paul. Officers sent the robots into the building before they entered. Above, Houa Vang removes a piece of broken glass from the window well of her apartment, which is adjacent to a unit where a woman was shot in the leg. Houa Vang said she and her husband, Don Xiong, were asleep until about 7:30 a.m. when the sound of breaking glass woke them up and police told them to evacuate.

As outdoors editor for the Pioneer Press, Orrick fishes, paddles, hunts, skis and romps across the region while staying on top of outdoors news. When the occasion demands, he's also been known to cover topics ranging from politics to golf. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and son.​

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